Texas Cops Can't Stop Killing People With Their Cars While Chasing Immigrants
Texas Cops Can't Stop Killing People With Their Cars While Chasing Immigrants
Well, they could ...
We talk a lot about cops killing people, frequently unarmed Black people given their propensity for it. So far this year, according to Mapping Police Violence, they’ve killed 1,082 people. That number, however, is a little too low, as it does not include people who had nothing to do with a crime but who were killed by a police vehicle during a chase, while minding their own damn business, trying to get to work or get home or run some errands. In 2020, for instance, there were 455 fatal crashes involving a police pursuit.
Since its implementation in March of 2021, Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star has been a $10 billion human rights disaster. It’s also led, in many counties, to 1000 percent increases in unnecessary vehicle chases.
On Monday, Human Rights Watch released a 77-page report documenting the rise in fatalities associated with law enforcement officers chasing down suspected undocumented immigrants in their cars. The report, titled “So Much Blood on the Ground: Dangerous and Deadly Vehicle Pursuits under Texas’ Operation Lone Star,” found that over a 29-month period, the program has led to crashes that have killed at least 74 people and injured at least 189.
“Operation Lone Star puts undue pressure on law enforcement to chase cars, sometimes with very little basis, resulting in deaths of drivers, passengers, and even bystanders,” said Human Rights Watch consultant Norma Herrera. “Our review of the cases over 29 months identified at least 7 bystanders killed in these car crashes, including a 7-year-old girl out to get ice cream with her grandmother.”
The chases have also resulted in increased property damage. Prior to the implementation of Operation Lone Star, police chases caused about $73,000 in damage, which wasn’t great to begin with, but now those losses are increasing to over $177,000. Now, sure — who gives a shit about property damage when seven-year-olds are being killed in these chases, right? But that’s just indicative of how reckless they are being.
According to the report, 81 percent of these chases — which average about 91 miles an hour — were initiated over a minor traffic violation like speeding or running a red light. Not exactly infractions worth risking anyone’s life or home over.
“Public safety doesn’t require careening around Texas roadways or crashing into Texans’ cars and homes,” said Alison Parker, the deputy US director at Human Rights Watch. “Texas’ Operation Lone Star is maximizing chaos, fear, and human rights abuses against Texans and migrants, which might be a cynical way to win political points but is not a responsible way to run a government.”
Even some law enforcement officers are not sure this is the best way to handle this particular problem.
“No life is worth risking if all you have is undocumented people in the car,” said one former police chief in an Operation Lone Star county. “Is it a crime? Yes, we get all that. But we also have to be smart and use good judgment when it comes to risking people’s lives. Innocent people are killed at times.”
I’m gonna say that all of the people killed in these pursuits were innocent, because anyone who is killed by police in any scenario unrelated to saving someone else’s life is an innocent person. They have not been convicted of any crime and even if they were convicted of a crime, not every crime — even in Texas — is punishable by death. But hey! At least there are a few cops out there who can at least see that this has, perhaps, gone a bit too far.
Now, if you are a complete asshole, you may be thinking “Sure, this has killed a whole lot of people, but is it working? Like, are there fewer immigrants? Is it hurting the drug cartels, maybe? Did that seven-year-old girl going out to get ice cream with her grandma die for my freedom to live in a country without people who were not born in this particular country, which is a thing I give a shit about for some reason?”
Well, no, it is not working.
Via Human Rights Watch:
Governor Abbott has attempted to justify Operation Lone Star as necessary to deter migration and disrupt cartels involved in drug smuggling, but by his own standards, the mission has largely been a failure. In July 2023, the Wall Street Journal found that, the part of the border targeted has has instead seen the most rapid increase in unauthorized migration in the state since the program began.
A March 2022 Texas Tribune article revealed that the data cited by the governor was for statewide drug seizures, not those solely tied to Operation Lone Star. In fact, the program has swelled the profits of drug cartels and smugglers, who can now charge a premium to help migrants cross the increasingly dangerous terrain.
Well if that’s not worth the $10 billion and 74-death price tag, I just don’t know what is.
Great Article. Thank you so much for... keeping it real. My only problem with the story is that I have to come here to read it. The MSM should be reporting on this. They should be reporting on each and every Republican example of the BS their representatives are doing and spewing across this great, big, Beautiful Country of ours. Constant coverage of rw BS, and of Biden's efforts and successes, you would think might have a chance of seeping into the collective subconscious of maga-types. If "our side" had 1/2 the broadcasting power of the rw echo-chamber, with it's 1500 radio stations and et cetera, we would sweep the elections. Dobry večer. (It's Czech. My ppl were Czech. I'm returning to my roots).
Now if she was unborn, then it would have been a major tragedy. “Outa ya womb, outa ma heart!”